The demand for manual scavenging is likely to go up with the construction of millions of new toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), the national cleanliness mission, undoing the campaign to put an end to a stigmatising and hazardous practice...

...The study, which covered four states, located 1,686 manual scavengers. These included 423 septic-tank cleaners, 286 open-drain cleaners and 956 dry-latrine cleaners of whom 92.35% were women. Up to 36% of these workers reported experiencing violence, and 50% had experienced untouchability...

...The government claims to have constructed 95 million toilets under SBM and reported that 93.1% households have access to toilets. But a large number of these toilets have been constructed using technologies that would require periodic emptying and offsite treatment of faecal matter, as per the new report. 

...Despite these campaigns, manual scavengers continue to work putting their lives at risk...but their existence is denied by many states...

...Sanitation workers have their lives cut short by the everyday risks of the job and they have a lower life expectancy than the average population. Few of them live beyond 60 and there is a rapid decline in the number of those who are over 50...

...India is listed among the nine countries where sanitation workers face the worst working conditions. Others included in the list are Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda...

...On several parameters, India is the worst amongst these countries. Manual sanitation work is not even acknowledged in the policies or strategies of the Indian government, while it is in Bangladesh and South Africa...